The Soviets have really been quite single-minded. They increased their defense expenditures as we increased ours. And they increased their defense expenditures as we decreased ours.

ATTRIBUTION:

HAROLD BROWN, secretary of defense, testimony, January 31, 1979.Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1980, hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate, 96th Congress, 1st session, p. 278 (1979).

More succinctly, Brown noted, Soviet spending has shown no response to U.S. restraintwhen we build they build; when we cut they build, in a statement before a joint meeting of the House and Senate Budget Committees in early 1979 regarding the fiscal 1980 budget.